Date: 2008-06-26 15:57 Subject: Infinite TLDs Security: Public Current Mood: amused

Something I have been wanting to see for years is going to happen. People and organizations will be able to create their own top-level domains, alongside .com, .org, etc. I won't be looking to snap up .horch any time soon, because initially, it's going to be a very expensive process.

Some people are saying that it's going to be hard for corporations, because there will be that many more places they have to register their names. It'll be like whitehouse.com (no link because that's a porn site) to the nth degree. Every company would have to register their name in thousands of places.

I think it's the exact opposite. Sure, Microsoft will still want microsoft.com, but so what if I own the .urinal-cakes TLD? You think anyone at Microsoft will lose any sleep because they haven't registered microsoft.urinal-cakes when they already have anything-they-want.microsoft?

That said, what top-level domain would you want, why, and what subdomains would you want?

Whoops, I just double checked. TLDs have to be letters only in any alphabet, according to the above article. So much for strongbad.compy.386, and my other example would have to be something like microsoft.urinalוcakes.

From: temporus Date: 2008-06-26 08:34 pm (UTC) (Link)

This will be a fragging nightmare. I see this as simply another way for all the registration companies to empty out the pockets of so many people. Disputes are going to increase, not get better.

Bleh.

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From: edhorch Date: 2008-06-26 09:06 pm (UTC) (Link)

Actually, I haven't heard whether administration of new TLDs would be done by the same registrars we use now. ICANN wants the TLDs to be expensive because they've sunk millions into this already, and they want to recoup those outlays.

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From: sr_orangepants Date: 2008-06-26 08:55 pm (UTC) (Link)

No chance of starting EdBook.Horch and putting it on everything you sell to the Scrabble community?

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From: edhorch Date: 2008-06-26 08:58 pm (UTC) (Link)

No, do it the other way. .edbook becomes the TLD, and the products are the 2LDs, like scorepad.edbook. Then when I expand my product line I can have annoying-trademarks.edbook, cheap-chinese-crap.edbook, etc.

Too bad it's only letters. I'd love to cybersquat .scrabble®.

Edited at 2008-06-26 08:59 pm (UTC)

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From: insurmountable Date: 2008-06-27 12:49 am (UTC) (Link)

Lot's of people are wailing and gnashing their teeth over this. And not just about dispute resolution and trademark issues. Some people are comparing it to the DARPANet days where a single flatfile was passed around neverminding the fact that bind has been tested with millions of TLDs without problem. Honestly, I find the freeing of TLDs democratizing and a good step in the right direction, but with the high price tag, and no extra process for registrars controlling sub-domains, it will be a while before the full effects of this appreciate.

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